The present invention relates to labels for blister packs, and to blister packs provided with such a label.
Blister packs are typically used for seal-packaging a plurality of pharmaceutical tablets, wherein each tablet can be dispensed individually whilst leaving the remaining tablets in a sealed condition. A typical blister pack contains a moulded plastic receptacle comprising an ordered array of distinct pockets or xe2x80x9cblistersxe2x80x9d. A single pharmaceutical tablet is arranged in each pocket, and the opening of each pocket is covered by a sealing layer, typically a thin metal foil, to thereby seal each tablet in its respective pocket. A tablet is dispensed by piercing the sealing layer at the opening of the respective pocket. The remaining tablets remain in a sealed state, since the sealing layer is adhered to the moulded plastic receptacle in such a manner that the piercing of the sealing layer in the region of one pocket does not break the seal of the remaining sealed pockets.
This type of package has the drawback however that the sealing layer, typically being a thin layer of thin metal foil, can be pierced very easily making the contents of the package easily accessible even to a small child. These types of packages are therefore inherently not very child proof. Furthermore, the written instructions and information provided with conventional blister packs are provided separately from the blister pack itself, the two being typically enslosed in a cardboard packet. Since the instructions are provided detached from the blister pack itself, there is the danger that the written instructions will become lost leaving the user in the undesirable situation of being left with pharmaceutical tablets about which he has no information ready at hand.
It is an aim of the present invention to provide a label for a blister pack, the application of which to the blister improves the safety of the blister pack with respect to its childproofness, and which preferably also solves the problem of the associated written instructions becoming lost.
It is a further aim of the present invention to provide a labelled blister pack which is inherently safer with respect to its childproofness, and which preferably solves the problem of the associated written instructions becoming lost.
According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a label for a blister pack comprising: a support piece having a rear self-adhesive surface and at least one removeable portion bounded by at least one tear line on a front surface of the support piece; and a multilaminar portion held on the front surface of the support piece.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a labelled package comprising: a receptacle comprising at least one pocket into which a respective object is stored and having an opening via which the object ray be dispensed; a sealing layer which covers the opening to seal the pocket; a label support piece having a rear surface adhered to the seal layer and at least one removable portion covering the opening of the pocket and bounded by at least one tear line on the front surface of the support piece; and a multilaminar portion held on the front surface of the label support piece.
According to a third aspect of the present invention there is provided a self-adhesive label for a blister pack carried on a backing of release material comprising: a support piece having a rear self-adhesive surface adhered to the backing of release material and a front surface, the support piece comprising a plurality of removeable portions each bounded by a tear line; and a multilaminar portion held on the front surface of the support piece.
According to a preferred embodiment, the multilaminar portion is releaseably held on the support piece, preferably by the provision of an overlaminate which is arranged on the multilaminar portion and has two opposed edge portions adhered to the front surface of the support piece, at least one of which is releasably adhered to the front surface of the support piece.
However, the provision of such an overlaminate is not an essential feature; the multilaminar portion could, for example, be held on by a thin layer, line or dots of adhesive between the multilaminar portion and the support piece, the nature of such adhesion being such that the multilaminar portion can be peeled by hand away from the support piece by a user at least to the extent that access can be gained to all of the removable portions.